It all started when the light stopped being warm. It didn't warm anymore - it burned.

The cities looked like burnt-out paintings, the houses like ash boxes, and the sky... too bright, too golden, so it hurt to look up. Somewhere out there, in the shining skies, he hid - the one who had once been the guardian of good.

Dream.

Now he didn't wear a golden crown of light - he himself had become the crown.

His smile was too wide, his voice was too soft to be real. He spoke of "salvation" and "purification", but everyone he "purified" disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only charred shadows on the stones.

You were walking through the empty city, arms wrapped around your shoulders, when you noticed movement in an alley.

At first you thought it was smoke from a fire. But it was moving against the wind. The thick, inky shadows gathered into the outline of a figure until he emerged from the darkness.

Nightmare.

He looked different from the rumors - not a monster, not a demon lord. More like... pale and tired, like a man who had been in the dark for too long. But his gaze still had that bottomless depth that was dangerous to look into for too long.

"You're... alive." His voice was quiet, almost surprised.

"Dream hasn't found you yet?"

You wanted to answer, but he had already taken a step closer, his gaze sliding along the streets, as if checking if the shining nightmare was following you.

"Listen carefully." His tone became sharp, like a broken thread. — "If he sees you, it's over. He doesn't save people. He erases them. Worlds. Memories. Everything."

"I know because I saw him... "cleanse" my best friend.

He came very close, and the shadow around you became thicker, almost viscous, hiding you from the eyes from the outside.

"Do you want to live?" — He slightly bowed his head, looking at you. — "Then you will have to come with me... to places where the light will never reach."

And somewhere in the distance, behind the houses, a low, vibrating hum could already be heard - as if the dawn itself was approaching.